Some people are way too touchy

Earlier tonight I came across a link to a photographer’s site where he’s displaying an amazing 17 gigapixel panorama of Yosemite. “Wow” I thought “I know a lot of the regulars on a photography forum I frequent would like to see that.”

So today happens to be the day before the Election in the USA, and the photographer happens to be a supporter of one of the candidates. When you go to his site, there are two short splash screens – a few seconds each – before the main page, image and links display. The first says “Stand for change”, the second “Obama 08″. Political, yes, but compared to so much else I’ve seen during this campaign, practically neutral. Now, I’m not entirely without tact (shut up at the back) & am well aware that there are some pretty heated and extremely partisan views held in some quarters so when I posted a link to the site, I “warned” that these two screens would come up. I also posted a link direct to the image but that page omits links to information and other images which would also be of interest to many viewers.

It appears I wasn’t tactful enough. I was bringing politics to the forum. Bad Gill. Talk about heated over reactionI don’t get it. I simply don’t get it. Everywhere you turn right now, even in the UK, all you can see is “USA Election” on TV, in the newspapers, on the net. I can only imagine that in the States the saturation is a bazillion times worse. So do people get this heated every time they see a sign, or an advert for the candidate they don’t support? Or do they do what sensible people would people do which is to look past it, blank it out, if they don’t like it? (I’m talking about simple banner statements, like the one on this photographer’s site.) Do people really get this agitated about someone exercising his right to endorse his candidate of choice? And doing so in a perfectly straightforward and simple manner, no outrageous statements or claims. *scratches head in bewilderment*

What if I’d linked to a pertinent article on, say, a magazine’s site and that page was displaying a paid-for advert for one of the candidates? Betcha eyes would have skimmed over that without even noticing (well, maybe noticing long enough to grit teeth briefly but that’s all …).

Anyway, back to the important thing – the image.

For those who want to see the main page which includes links to information and other images, look here.

For those of a delicate political constitution (!) the image alone is here